Monthly Archives: May 2009

John called the doctor yesterday about his back pain. They told him to take 9 Ibprofen at a time. Yes, Viriginia, you read that right:

NINE

That’s got to be a record. I have never heard of anyone taking that much. I kept thinking I heard him wrong — or that our doctor meant to say something else, but saw the 9th on the calendar or something. But I got to say: I waited for him to come home, ready to help him since he could barely move when he left the house in the morning, and he had a long day yesterday with a lot of pain. Instead, he walked up to the house like he never had a problem.

So: buy stock in ibprofen companies and thank the Blackwells when it goes up!

For a lot of us, it’s about a day off and barbecues. The summer season begins with beach towns looking for that first big wave of tourists to arrive.

Nothing wrong with barbecues or trips to the beach, especially when we also remember why this day is here:

Some don’t come home. And some don’t come home whole.

For me, an unbreakable, sacred pact exists between those who serve and the people they serve.

When you go into the military, even in a time of peace, you’re promising your readiness to make the ultimate sacrifice: to die or come home broken if you’re told to go into battle.

Because that promise is so huge, we civilians and the government must uphold our end: a promise that we will not ask for that price without the ultimate justification. No trumped up or false reasons, no politics.

The men and women who wore the boots below are gone. They didn’t get another Memorial Day bbq.

So we remember them and make the promise to fulfill our Constitutional duty: be a check and balance to the government, making sure we all uphold our end of the pact. For our men and women in service, and the innocents always caught in the crossfire. or trips

I had to take Morgan back to the hospital yesterday. She collapsed in the morning and couldn’t walk. It was like she had a stroke; it was really frightening. They said she has a vestibulary problem in her nervous system, especially in the nerves in the brain. It throws off her balance which is why she couldn’t keep on her feet; the vertigo is horrible. She could have had a version that happens with old dogs: it happens suddenly but heals itself in a week. But the risk was, she could have a brain tumor.

Thankfully, she came out of it on her own, which leans towards her being fine. Thank goodness!

But! John also hurt his back and is laid up, not able to do really anything. I’m not the kind of wife to point out that I told him to wait until I could go with hin on Friday to set up our RV so this wouldn’t happen, so we won’t even go there. He really is hurting; you can see how bad it is when he tries to even shift in the bed. If he doesn’t get better, he wants to go to the ER for meds. I said the vet did a great job on Morgan, so maybe we should take him there…

The Disney Desktop section is reborn! 30 new wallpapers are waiting for you. Right now, they came from my photos and from one of All Ears photographers, Scott Thomas, but look for the rest of the team to give photos for this section.

These Disney World wallpapers come in a large variety of sizes, from common 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768, up to the widescreen IMAX theater size 1920 x 1200! (Thanks go to Jack Spence on the All Ears team for helping me find the right resolution for the drive-in screen he uses as a monitor. 😉 )

Plus!

All Ears wants to give you access to favorites that don’t get the attention they deserve, such as:

Foodies, your time is here! Do you need not just a Disney fix, but you’re thinking of Cheddar Cheese soup? We have started a Disney restaurant wallpaper section featuring these special places and some signature dishes!

This is just the first phase! Screensavers are coming soon, and more & more wallpapers! All Ears sees so many special events like the ESPN weekend, the Food & Wine festival, Star Wars weekends, anniversaries — we’re going to offer these too, not to mention all the holidays. Plus! Coming up is our Disneyland and California Adventure (including Club 33!), the Cruise Line, Walt Disney history…. and of course, we’re adding to all of these sections! More Disney Restaurants wallpapers, more Disney resorts wallpapers, and more from the parks!

All Ears readers always ask for photos, photos, and more photos! Here they are, ready for your desktop!

And as always, please give All Ears your feedback. Do you like these wallpapers? Let us know! Do you need different sizes or want to see certain attractions, shows, restaurants, events….? Let us know!

Casey has been having accidents; when the vet ruled out health issues, it came down to getting older and a weaker bladder. People with vet degrees in my animal shelter group recommended pumpkin seed oil. I told my friend Preston about this and he looked up what it does. I should say, what DOESN’T it do?

By the way, since one of the major things it does is help with incontinence, when I called the the health food store to see if they had it, the person on the other end looked it up in the computer, and suddenly did the classic, “Ma’am, can I ask? Are you looking for this because of <drop voice to whisper> bladder control?” Which is actually very nice. You wouldn’t want them announcing to the entire store, “You got pee problems, Miss?” Anyway, I answered calmly that yes, that’s why I was calling, and then defensively, “It’s for my dog!” You know they were thinking, yeah right!

This tangent brought to you by A.D.D! Yes, A.D.D. – offering a life time of diversions in every minute!

And now back to the regular post.

Men! Don’t think you’ve been forgotten! Because as Captain Extract here reminds us, Pumpkin Seed Oil takes care of the prostate! And some other services for your whole hoo-hoo system that I’m not going to mention any further. I did the In-The-Navy singing bit like everybody else, but that doesn’t mean I’m quoting any description of Captain Extract and the semen thing. If you want to know more about that, I’m sure there’s a school film from the 50s called “How to Make Your Semen Swell!”. (And a MST 3K riff of it.)

As Preston and I got to about the 8th benefit of Pumpkin Seed Oil and her fight to Make the Body Good!, it started reminding me of the Saturday Night Live bit:

Spokesman: New Shimmer is both a floor wax and a dessert topping! Here, I’ll spray some on your mop.. [ sprays Shimmer onto mop ] …and some on your butterscotch

I hope this holiday weekend is going great! Get those flowers out, fire up the barbecue, and a big thumbs up for Queen Victoria! The longest reigning monarch in her people’s history, a harbinger for a time of great progress in industry, politics, society, economy, science, and more. She helped establish the idea of modern constitutional monarchy, with significant increase of power to the democratic bodies in her Empire. She placed a strong emphasis on morality and family values, in contrast to the sexual, financial and personal scandals of the previous monarchs, and despite the negative (such as becoming queen of India), she did so much good in fighting against injustices around the world, reaching into my own country. For example:

Martha Ricks, a former slave from Tennessee, had saved her pennies for more than fifty years, to afford the voyage from Liberia to England to personally thank the Queen for sending the British navy to patrol the coast of West Africa to prevent slavers from exporting Africans for the slave trade. Martha Ricks shook hands with the Queen and presented her with a Coffee Tree quilt, which Queen Victoria later sent to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition for display.

She was responsible for Canada’s confederation as well as establishing many new provinces, which explains why they have this holiday.

So thank you, Queen Victoria. If I may speak tongue in cheek, I can see why Sherlock Holmes shot your emblem into the walls of 221B Baker Street.